Affiliations: Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany | Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Julia Weichel, Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Str. 40, D-34109 Kassel, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The demographic change in Western societies leads to an increasing number of older employees in organizations. Furthermore, the percentage of employees with physical impairments increases with rising age. Job rotation is one intervention that aims at preventing unbalanced workload and increasing variation. However, systematic studies focusing on the effects of job rotation and on systematic job rotation schemes in practise are rare. The presented study analyzes job rotation in the automotive industry and its relationships to subjective and objective data with regard to an aging workforce and impaired employees. Our analysis showed that older and impaired employees rotated less. Employees who rotated between higher ranges of workstations assessed their job performance and health higher than employees with a smaller rotation-range. More job rotation was also correlated to less absenteeism. Additionally, impaired employees had lower performance and health scores, and higher absenteeism than employees without impairments. Practical implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
Keywords: Job rotation, older employees, impairments, automotive industry
